In Tokyo: They are heavily dependent on me

Chapter 82. Brother... will always be with Rin.

[Kaoru-kun, it's a promise, I'll be visiting your house tomorrow.]

[It shouldn't be too late, I'll arrive around six o'clock.]

It was a message sent by Minister Yanagi no Shinobu.

Leaving the bathroom, Kaoru dried her wet hair with a towel while replying to Minister Yanagi's message.

After explaining his exact location to the minister, he dried his hair in a few minutes and then went downstairs.

Rin had just finished preparing dinner when she saw Kaoru come downstairs. Suddenly, she turned her gaze to Kaoru's face.

She sat down at the table, still silent. Kaoru felt a chill run down her spine from her gaze and hesitantly asked in a very insecure tone, "Wh...what's wrong?"

Rin gave a curt "Oh" and said, "It's nothing," before burying her head in her dinner.

Kaoru felt that something was off about her. As she hesitated about whether to tell her that Minister Yanagi was going to visit on Saturday, her phone, which was lying to the side, started to vibrate.

He glanced at it and immediately stood up the moment he saw the phone number.

"Excuse me... I need to take this call."

Kaoru stood up somewhat awkwardly, lifted the noren curtain that served to keep her warm, and went outside the ramen shop.

When the call connected, he held the phone to his mouth, waiting for the other person to speak.

"Hey, are you busy?"

Xiaolin's voice came from the other end of the phone.

"No, I'm having dinner. What's wrong?"

"Do you have time? Come to my house on Saturday."

"Go to your house? Why?"

"Mom said... I should thank you properly, and she said I should treat you to a meal... Anyway, it's a lot of trouble."

Kaoru remembered that Minister Yanagi no Shita would be visiting their home tomorrow night, and as for the daytime... he still had to deal with his work at the ramen shop, so he simply didn't have time.

"Tomorrow probably won't work, but the day after tomorrow should be fine."

"The day after tomorrow... okay, I'll tell Mom, you have to come!"

After exchanging a few words, Xun hung up the phone.

He had just turned around when he nearly bumped into Rin, who had appeared in front of him without warning.

"Whose call was that?"

Rin stared at his phone with a hostile gaze.

"It's Kobayashi... She asked me to go to her house on Sunday; it was her mother's idea."

To avoid her sister misunderstanding, Kaoru immediately offered an explanation.

Rin didn't seem to suspect him much, and simply said "Oh" before lifting the noren curtain and entering the ramen shop.

After finishing her fried chicken, Xun went upstairs and spent an hour learning sheet music and musical notation.

His Spanish studies are nearing completion, and he plans to learn German next.

As Xun opened her notebook, intending to review the vocabulary she had learned yesterday, a "click" sounded, and the fluorescent light hanging overhead suddenly went out.

What happened?

Using the faint light from her phone, Xun wanted to go downstairs to check the cause of the power outage.

He opened the bedroom door, and the light from his phone shone on the figure in front of him.

She is his sister.

Rin stood at the door, clutching her pillow with some worry. When she saw Kaoru come out, she immediately rushed over and buried her face in his chest.

"Brother...the power suddenly went out...it's scary."

Even when she was very young, Rin had an innate fear of the dark.

When she's home alone, she leaves all the lights on, and she doesn't turn them off even when she goes to sleep.

"It's alright, Rin, wait for me here. I'll go downstairs and take a look. Maybe it's because a rat chewed through the power cord."

Power outages happen frequently, so Kaoru didn't take it to heart.

Hearing that he was leaving, Rin hugged him tighter, not intending to let him go.

"But... it's already very late, even if we need to do repairs, we can only wait until tomorrow."

"Yes, that's true."

Finding her words reasonable, Xun gently soothed her by placing her palm on the top of her head.

"In that case, Rin can sleep in my room tonight."

"Okay, brother..."

Kaoru closed the door, and Rin followed behind him to the bedside, where she carefully lay down.

"Brother, aren't you coming up to sleep?"

As if sensing Kaoru's hesitation.

Rin lay on her side facing him.

In the dimly lit bedroom, the eyes gradually adjusted to the darkness and were able to see the general outline of the body.

This year's rainy season seems to have arrived early.

The temperature is showing a clear downward trend, and you don't feel hot at all even without air conditioning.

Kaoru lay on the bed, the distance between them allowing her to feel the warmth of his breath.

He felt a little lost, realizing it had been a long time since he had slept in the same bed with Rin.

"I miss it a little."

Rin spoke in a tone full of reminiscence.

"Nostalgia?"

"I used to do this a lot when I was little. I would sleep with my older brother and I needed to hear a fairy tale to fall asleep."

"Oh...is that so?"

It seems like... I have such a memory.

Xun couldn't quite remember it, nor did she want to spend the effort to recall it.

After all, it's already quite late.

The ramen shop will be very busy tomorrow, so I should get some rest as soon as possible.

"Rin, goodnight."

Xun had her back to her and had just closed her eyes when she suddenly heard the sound of clothes rubbing together behind her.

Immediately afterwards, an object that could be clearly perceived by the body was squeezed into a deformed shape.

"Rin...why did you take your clothes off?"

"It's so hot, sweating is such a hassle... Can't I just do this?"

Xun's lips parted slightly, but she didn't make a sound, tacitly agreeing to what she had done.

"Brother... answer me."

Rin moved even closer.

The hot breath emanating from his body tickled his cheeks.

Xun was struggling to calm down; her mind was in complete disarray.

"If Rin thinks it's okay... then it's okay."

"In that case—I want my brother to hold me, is that allowed?"

It's a little... odd.

For some reason, Rin gave him a feeling of unfamiliarity that one would only feel upon first meeting her.

I clearly felt that things were different from before, but when it came to specific aspects... I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

Kaoru turned around and kept looking back at Rin.

"If you want to hug me... no problem."

"elder brother......"

Rin didn't hesitate any longer and pounced on him decisively.

The long-lost, soft touch came from my arm.

Rin snuggled into his arms like a kitten, curling up as if she lacked a sense of security.

"So warm..."

She made a satisfied sound, feeling that this wasn't enough, and the strength of her hug... became even greater.

"Cough cough... I can't breathe."

Kaoru had difficulty even making a sound, but Rin didn't care at all. She nuzzled his chin repeatedly with her head like a spoiled puppy.

"Brother... from now on, you have to keep promising Rin."

Despite the sweet voice, a strange sense of fear welled up in Kaoru's mind.

It's like the instinctive fear that prey feels when facing its hunter.

That sentence just came out like that.

"Brother... will always be with Rin."